Armenia wants to coordinate its foreign policy with Russia

MOSCOW, April 6 /TASS/. Armenia wants to coordinate its foreign policy with Russia, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said in an interview aired by the Rossiya 24 TV news channel on Monday evening.

"If we are joining unions, we are naturally taking on obligations," Sargsyan said when asked whether Russia could rely on Armenia’s support in international issues.

"We have had relations with Russia and the Russian people for centuries, but now we have fixed them on paper in documents," Sargsyan said meaning both bilateral Russian-Armenian agreements and Armenia’s participation in the Collective Security Treaty Organization /CSTO/.

"First, we have always favoured integration processes; second, we have always wanted to coordinate our foreign policy efforts. Until recently, no one can give a single example that the Armenian side has tried to turn away from its direct commitments," the Armenian president stressed.

He also confirmed that the Armenian leadership will take part in the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War /1941-1945/ to be held in Moscow on May 9.

"We will certainly attend the main /jubilee/ festivities which, I believe, will take place in Moscow," the Armenian president said adding that a small number of Armenian military units would march on Moscow's Red Square at the Victory Parade on May 9.

"We are going to mark this bright holiday in Armenia. This is also our Victory and we are going to mark this jubilee anniversary as a holiday," Serzh Sargsyan said.

"By the start of the Great Patriotic War, Armenia had a population of 1.9 million people. There were 2.8 million Armenians in the territory of the Soviet Union, including Armenia," the Armenian president said.

"A total of 600,000 Armenians went to the front of which 314,000 did not return home," Sargsyan said noting that every ninth Armenian or almost 12% f Armenian population died in the Great Patriotic War.